Tag Archives: trail run

Gore-Tex® TransAlpine-Run 2013

Happy New Year to you! I’m a couple of weeks late with my wish, but I truly do hope this is your best year yet. As with the beginning of every new year, it is a time to reflect on the past year and look ahead to the new year. I always look back to recognize and celebrate everything that was accomplished, acknowledge what was learned, and recognize what needs to change moving forward and what new goals to set. Then, with all of that in mind, I can start to look forward in planning my best year ever. In coming posts I’ll break down for you all the areas I consider when planning my year, but a big category for me is planning my athletic endeavors. Taking care of my health and challenging myself physically are a huge part of who I am!

We sat down with our coach, Ian Torrence, recently to plan out our race year. The title of this blog post gives it away a bit, but we’ve got a number of events planned for the year, with the TransAlpine-Run being a focal point. We ran the TransRockies Run last summer, so why not compete in the sister event in the Alps? And, what better way to see the Alps??

What is the Gore-Tex® TransAlpine-Run?

I am so glad you asked! Each year is slightly different, but this year it is an 8-day pairs stage race through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. The distance is about 250km and there is about 50,000 ft. of climbing. While the elevation range is lower than we are used to here in Colorado, the terrain and elevation gain will be tremendous and insanely challenging.

As we did last year with the TransRockies Run, we are creating a video log of our journey with our training and sharing it at therunningmartins.com. Please subscribe and share it everywhere – we need all the support we can get this year! In addition to this, we will also be doing our first ever 50-mile race as well as several other 50km and shorter races.

One of the best things to come from getting involved in ultrarunning has by far been the connections we’ve gotten with other people. It is really interesting because ultrarunning is very much a solitary sport – the race fields are typically very small, the distances so long that you might not see another soul for a few hours, and the training usually includes countless hours with just yourself. YET, when we do meet others, the connections run deep and friendships are forever.

TransAlpine-Run Folks ROCK!

Check out what the kind people at TransAlpine-Run posted about us? This made my week to find!

Needless to say, we are SUPER excited to not only participate in, but to take the journey in training for the TransAlpine-Run this year! Looking back at what we accomplished last year showed us that we are ready to up our game and take on bigger challenges. My hope is that we will be able to say the same thing at the end of 2013!

Please follow our TransAlpine-Run journey and subscribe to therunningmartins.com. Also, stay tuned for more posts from me on setting goals!